Following the farce of a trial over the alleged e-book price-fixing by Apple in its iBooks Store, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ordered that her friend and relatively new monitor Michael Bromwich oversee e-book pricing reform and regulatory compliance.

However, the acrimony between Bromwich and Apple’s upper management began upon the disclosure of Bromwich’s exorbitant fees.

Bromwich justified the administrative fee on the grounds that he’s handling the assignment through his consultancy, the Bromwich Group, rather than through his law firm, Goodwin Procter LLP, according to Apple’s filing.

Bromwich’s invoice for his first two weeks of work was $138,432, the equivalent of 75 percent of a federal judge’s annual salary, Apple said in its filing, which described the administrative surcharge as “unprecedented in Apple’s experience.”

Readers may recall Mr. Bromwich as the political fixer President Obama brought in after the BP deepwater oil spill. He worked for Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh in the Reagan era and as inspector general for the Justice Department in the Clinton years.

He was confirmed for the latter job despite conflicts of interest; his mentor Philip Heymann was Deputy Attorney General and inspectors general are supposed to be impartial watchdogs. In 1994, Judge Cote wrote Mr. Bromwich an effusive endorsement letter to help push him over the Senate hump.

While he has great political connections, Mr. Bromwich has no experience in antitrust law. The greenhorn is billing Apple at an $1,100 hourly rate and he was forced to hire the law firm Fried Frank to make up for his lack of expertise, at $1,025 a hour. He racked up $138,432.40 in charges for his first two weeks. A spokesman for Mr. Bromwich’s firm, the Bromwich Group, declined to comment on matters currently before the court.

My fees are reasonable, and you have no idea what a reasonable fee looks like. Also, it doesn’t matter if you think my fees are reasonable, because you don’t get to negotiate them: You just pay them. The court will approve them.

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http://techshizzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Bromwich.png300600Scott Bellhttp://techshizzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/TechShizzle-Card-Logo-300x300.pngScott Bell2013-12-31 09:05:262013-12-31 09:05:26Appointed Apple Monitor Doesn't Like Being Called Out on His BS